Laura Tate is going out on a high note. This week’s edition of The Malibu Times [Dec. 1 issue] was outstanding and illuminated the rich and diverse place in which we live. I loved the pieces on Valerie Sklarevsky and Sophie Radermecker, and most of all the wonderful photos of our beautiful wooden bridges at Malibu Lagoon, which, alas, are in jeopardy.
In the words of UCLA Professor Emeritus Hartmut Walter (who specializes in ecosystem analysis and conservation), “Because of its unique natural and social attributes, there is really nothing wrong with the present park design and attributes. In fact, it seems optimal. The existing access trail with its bridges is of exceptional value…Seen as an ecosystem, Malibu Lagoon has no equals.”
Fortunately, in the Everglades, the National Park Service also chose to put a trail through the middle of wetlands where bridges take you over alligators, birds and more wildlife.
Should such beautiful bridges be sacrificed in a “hope…that the tides and wind will generate enough water circulation to regularly scour out excess sediment”?
Not a certainty? Not even a prediction? A very costly experiment with a permit to redo if it is not successful.
Thank you for the fine article and the best of luck to Laura Tate!
Carol Moss